Fernando Alonso praises 'sublime' US GP drive before Honda failure

Fernando Alonso believes his performance during Formula 1's United States Grand Prix weekend was "sublime", before he retired from the race with engine problems

The McLaren driver was running eighth when he reported a lack of power from his Honda F1 engine and was asked to drive back to the pits to retire.

It was Alonso's 10th retirement of 2017, making him the first McLaren driver with 10 non-finishes in a season since Kimi Raikkonen in 2002.

While he admitted yet another retirement was tough to digest, Alonso said he was delighted with his own performance.

"I'm very happy with how the weekend went on a personal level - I think the level this weekend was sublime, both in qualifying and in the race," Alonso said.

"The championship standings don't reflect that. It doesn't change much for me to be 12th or 17th in the championship, but on merit I think we should be a lot higher up."

Alonso expects to be forced into using a new Honda engine in Mexico, which will mean grid penalties, and he predicts another tough weekend.

"I think the engine is broken, and in Mexico there was a chance that we could try to change the engine there and be penalised in order to arrive in Brazil and Abu Dhabi with a fresher engine," Alonso added.

"Now it's basically certain we'll change the engine in Mexico, and therefore another weekend where you start last and it will be complicated to score again.

"Obviously all attention is placed on next year, and in these three races I'd like to score points to improve in the standings and to help the team as well.

"But from the three races remaining, in one we'll start last, so let's see if we can score in the other two."